Sometimes things just get away from you… (I made 11 cakes last weekend!!)
Sometimes things just get away from you… and that’s what happened to me and my schedule for last week. For months and months, I’d been doing great at cutting back, saying “no” and giving myself some breathing room when it came to cake orders.
Then last weekend happened and this:
Ya’ll. I had orders for nine cakes, six dozen cupcakes (5 dozen with custom toppers), and 2 smash cakes (not pictured). Seriously. What in the world was I thinking?
I guess I was thinking that sometimes we just have to break our own rules. Let me give you a quick run-down on all of these orders and the “why” behind me agreeing to do so much cake.
My first order went out to a sweet customer Allison. She ordered a cake for herself, cupcakes for herself, and a cake for her boyfriend. I love it when a girl knows what she wants and is not afraid to order it 😉 Aside from being a sweetheart, Allison’s parents run The Doll’s House ministry and I completely adore them and the work they do for Christ and serving women. I couldn’t say no to anybody in that family. I just couldn’t.
Besides, she pretty much let me have free reign with the design of her cake. She only said that lately she was loving Tiffany Blue. My only regret? I finished up the order late at night and didn’t get any great pics.
If you’re wondering, I used this lace mold for the border, made the wafer paper flower following a tutorial in this Craftsy class, and the color was done with Americolor Teal and Sky Blue – then I sprayed the whole thing over with PME Pearl Spray.
Allison also wanted some Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter frosting… and this cake for her boyfriend:
It was red velvet cake with cream cheese buttercream and an edible image I ordered!
Next, I made this cake:
Again, I completely adore this customer and she always picks the cutest cake designs!! There was no way I could resist an order for animal prints, bows, bling, hot pink, and gravity-defying nail polish! This is the same customer who orders the Maleficent Cake last year. She’s just awesome, right?
Then there was this smash cake:
This little buttercream cow print cake was done for a photo session, then I made another the next day to go with the cake and 3 dozen farm animal cupcakes for the party.
For some reason I didn’t get a pic of the cake, cupcakes and smash cake together. 🙁 But I did get the cake and cupcakes, then the cake and smash cake #2:
And if you want to know how to make the cupcakes, I have a whole series on making the Barnyard Animal Cupcake Toppers HERE.
I almost never do all buttercream cakes, but mom specifically requested that no fondant be on any of the cakes, so I took the challenge! After I finished up those, I made camo cakes!
The one with the shotgun shells was for my nephew Rodney’s 4th birthday. I never ever refuse a cake to a niece or nephew so that was a given.
Is he not the cutest kid you’ve ever seen?? The dimples… gosh the dimples. I call him my “little cupcake”.
Then my sis-in-law asked if I could make a matching cake for her cousin who was celebrating his 15th birthday the same day of Rodney’s party. Since I love a good surprise and Win (her cousin) was going to be at the party, they surprised him with the matching cake and added a 4 Wheeler for the topper! I had to do it ya’ll. Had to.
After all of that partying… I came home and made this Hulk cake:
And I made 2 dozen matching Avenger’s cupcakes. These were done for twin boys celebrating their 4th birthday. Their Mama is our family doctor (and one of the kindest women you’ll ever meet) and after one of the boys’ near-death accident two years ago, the family celebrates a miracle every day that they have him and I consider it an honor to be making their cakes and hope to be doing it for many, many years to come!
Once all that was finished… I still had 2 cakes to go! The first was for my brother – celebrating his 30th birthday. His sweet wife planned a big surprise party for him and I had a blast learning a new technique and making him this very unique and masculine Tree Bark Cake:
I was shocked… completely STUNNED… at how easy this technique was and how realistic it looked – even up close:
And last, but certainly not least… my sweet Caleb celebrated his 15th birthday!! He’s the kindest, gentlest, most hard-working kid I know. He cuts grass (for us and with my brother as part of his business), he makes all of my buttercream, he made me a coffee table and he’s made chairs and gosh… he’s just awesome! He was actually born the same day my brother celebrated his 15th birthday so it was kind of neat that this past weekend, they turned 15 and 30 together!
My sister-in-law let me crash in on her party a little bit and surprise Caleb with his own cake. He was such a sweetheart the whole week… he knew I had a zillion orders and he never asked nor complained about having a cake of his own.
But having failed before at making my kids a cake – I am doing my best to not let that happen again. So I stayed up late (very late – like 3am late) and I finished this cake to surprise him! He loved it and every minute of lost sleep was worth it for this precious kiddo!
So that’s it… my long long list of cakes and cupcakes from this past weekend. And it’s also why I slept til 11am on Monday. #notevenkidding
I know I sort of skimmed over all of these cakes… so as usual, do you have any questions? Leave me a comment!!
Happy Caking!
Rose
Love the cakes, especially the tree bark … Where can I find a description of the technique? Would like to have a ho at it myself. Thsnk you Rose.
I found the technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3tx__hFdw
Me he quedado maravillada con ese tronco de árbol, bellísima torta, si fuera posible, podrías enseñarnos como se logra la corteza del árbol por favor ?????.
Miles de felicitaciones………….!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ximena.
I found the technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3tx__hFdw
Wow! And I was struggling with one wedding cake:) Awesome work Rose! You’re a machine!!!
Ha! I have a lot of support and help from my husband and kiddos!
Hi Rose, I love ur cakes and would lik to know the technique please u used to make your brothers 39th bday cake. Thank you in advance
I found the technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3tx__hFdw.
So sorry I meant 30th bday.
Hi Rose , your cakes are adorable. I love the tree bark cake and thanks for putting up the YouTube .
However , let me introduce myself , I am a self taught cake decorator and ” self taught ” bakery owner also !
Lately I am struggling with copyright issues. I don’t do anything related to copyright license characters but other bakeries in my area do . It put a down turn on my business so far . How can I get away with this problem ? Thanks if you can help me .
Hi Lieu, Honestly, I don’t know that you can get away from the issue. From what I understand, you cannot legally do the characters. I try to offer alternatives that will work for the theme and encourage them to up their own toys on the cakes if they choose.
pls I want to knw the technique u used for the tree body cake and the nail polish turned upside down,thanks.and do you have any help?how do you work with all these tasking orders?
I found the technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3tx__hFdw. I have help from my husband and children. I also make a good schedule and plan. I talk about that a little here
This is crazy! How often does it usually take you to make a typical cake… Say the tiffany blue one? How about the custom fondant toppers?
The Tiffany Blue Cake probably took about 2 hours to decorate and I can do most any design in 4 hours or less. The custom toppers usually take 1-2 hours, depending on how many different designs. This time around my 13 yo. daughter made most of the Avenger’s cupcakes and we worked on the farm animals together.
Very beautiful cakes and a lot of work!
Thank you!
Love that you made your son a cake with all the other orders you had. So nice to read your sweet comments about him, too. I just came to see pics of the cakes but love the love you showed your family. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for stopping by Beth!
Wow Rose! I do not know how you do it! Happy birthday to Caleb and his cake is so awesome! I was thinking about you with Blended coming up. I am not going to make it this year – are you?
No! It looks like it’s going to be amazing but I wont be there 🙁 And thank you for the sweet birthday wishes for my Caleb.
Beautiful work!!
Was the hulk cake (the fist) modeling chocolate covered in fondant??
Thank you!
Hi Marlene! It was Rice Krispie Treats covered in modeling chocolate.
Just curious, are you baking all these cakes and cupcakes the same week or have they already been baked? That’s a lot of baking and decorating to do in a week. Just gorgeous.
Hi Amy! I baked them all on Thursday. I have 2 ovens (a regular one and a smaller wall oven) and my 13 year old daughter works for me making all of my batter. She mixes it up, I spread it into pans and set timers and when the timers get down to 10 minutes she starts the next round of batter and we rotate them in and out. I think I baked around 7-8 hours straight on this past Thursday.
I love all of the cakes! I thought I was busy! I had 8 cakes this past weekend! I’m still struggling some with prioritizing my time better. I was up all Friday night baking and finishing up orders! I cannot complain! Your cakes are totally awesome!
Thank you!
Oh wow! These cakes are fantastic! You really motivate me to always strive to do better with my craft.
Thanks so much Patricia! xx
I think your cakes are awesome! But I love your sweet personality, you are very inspirational and I just love to read your stories.